Plow-Stock. (open access)

Plow-Stock.

Patent for a simply, durably, and efficiently constructed plow-stock that "will admit of changes being made in an expeditious and convenient manner to facilitate the grouping of the shares or plows to be carried by the stock" (lines 11-14).
Date: July 30, 1895
Creator: Abbott, Joseph W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Animal Trap. (open access)

Animal Trap.

Patent for a new and improved animal trap. This design consists in "a platform having a rod or bar secured to its upper face, and having the ends of the choke-spring coiled thereon, pins or prongs extending from one edge of the platform for engagement with a side of a box, a box having one of its sides elevated, against which the pronged end of the platform abuts for engagement therewith, and having recesses in its opposite ends for the recession of a loop, which passes thence over the free end of the platform for binding the same to the box" (lines 3-14).
Date: June 12, 1888
Creator: Beach, Philemon Theodore
System: The Portal to Texas History
Animal Trap. (open access)

Animal Trap.

Patent for a new and improved animal trap. This design consists in "the combination of the wire frame having the parallel base-arms, the coiled-springs, the upwardly-extending arms, and the downwardly-extending loop, the loop or ring on the bend and engaged portions of said wire, and the trigger-wire having the frontwardly-projecting point engaging said ring" (lines 80-87).
Date: July 10, 1888
Creator: Beversdorf, Louis, Jr.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Disk Cultivator (open access)

Disk Cultivator

Patent for an improved "disk cultivator that will be adapted for the various purposes to which such devices are ordinarily applied. The invention consists in certain details of construction and combination and arrangement of parts" (lines 13-18)
Date: August 9, 1898
Creator: Brock, Andrew L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Disk Cultivator. (open access)

Disk Cultivator.

Patent for a disk cultivator that can be used without supporting wheels, and cuts stalks or tracks while cultivating. It is also adjustable in both height and width.
Date: October 2, 1894
Creator: Brock, Andrew L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Disk Cultivator. (open access)

Disk Cultivator.

Patent for an improvement on a previous patent granted to the inventor (no. 526,962)for a disk cultivator. The improvement is that "the disks are supported at any point on the under side of the disk-frame and in means whereby the disk-supporting frame may be elevated from the ground" (lines 16-19).
Date: November 3, 1896
Creator: Brock, Andrew L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Device for Marking Goods. (open access)

Device for Marking Goods.

Patent for a new and improved price tag. This design "consist[s] of a strip of ductile metal or any other material comprising a tapering finger, having a pointed hook or prong at its outer end and a square or rectangular plate integral with the tapering finger" (lines 96-100). It it further "provided on three sides with overturned edges or flanges and on the fourth side with a raised shoulder or offset adapted to form a stop for the removable marking-tag, so as to hold the same in place removably" (lines 1-5).
Date: May 3, 1892
Creator: Brown, Sampson H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Tag (open access)

Tag

Patent for a tag. This tag is intended for use with dry goods, material bolts, and like items. Illustration included.
Date: March 17, 1908
Creator: Brown, Sampson H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine For Developing Photographic Plates (open access)

Machine For Developing Photographic Plates

Patent for a machine for developing photographic plates. Illustration included.
Date: March 12, 1907
Creator: Brown, William H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Photographic-Printing Device. (open access)

Photographic-Printing Device.

Patent for a new photographic-printing device featuring an improved apparatus, as well as new exposure and printing capabilities, including illustrations.
Date: February 20, 1906
Creator: Brown, William H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Nut Lock. (open access)

Nut Lock.

Patent for a new and improved nut lock. This design consists "[i]n a nut-lock, the combination, with a screw-threaded bolt and nut, of a pair of arms pivoted or hinged together, said arms having annular screw-threaded grooves formed therein adapted to register with the threads on the bolt, and means for locking the arms together" (lines 76-81).
Date: April 27, 1886
Creator: Clark, Fred
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Picker's Sack. (open access)

Cotton-Picker's Sack.

Patent for improvements in a cotton-picker's sack, allowing for easy access to deposit and empty picked cotton while remaining nearly closed to hold and protect the cotton.
Date: October 16, 1888
Creator: Cliett, Taylor
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hose or Pipe Coupling. (open access)

Hose or Pipe Coupling.

Patent for a hose or pipe coupling meant to "provide a coupling of great simplicity of construction forming a tight and efficient connection by which the hose can be connected without turning it, without the screwing together of the sections and without a loose washer within one of the couplings which is readily lost and quickly gets out of order" (lines 12-19).
Date: April 16, 1895
Creator: Conley, Andrew J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hose-Coupling. (open access)

Hose-Coupling.

Patent for a new and useful hose coupling, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: May 30, 1899
Creator: Conley, Andrew Jackson
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Chopper. (open access)

Cotton-Chopper.

Patent for a cotton chopper, which has a hoe on one side and a cultivator on the other.
Date: March 15, 1910
Creator: Dittrich, William
System: The Portal to Texas History
Artificial Fruit, Foliage, and Flowers. (open access)

Artificial Fruit, Foliage, and Flowers.

Patent for a new and improved method of making artificial fruit. This design "consists in cutting out a piece of lace or netting of the desired shape, forming the lace or netting into a bag, stuffing the bag with cotton or wool . . . picking the cotton or wool up through the meshes of the lace or netting, cutting narrow strips of tissue-paper, and applying them in layers until a covering similar to pasteboard is formed, drying the article, painting the article, sinking the article in a bath of wax heated to a point beneath boiling . . . letting it drain off, and finally applying a paint finish" (lines 34-47).
Date: May 24, 1887
Creator: Eve, Emma H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow. (open access)

Plow.

Patent for a plow used in agriculture to level, scatter, and mix soil. Plow has adjustable settings.
Date: November 25, 1913
Creator: Fielder, William F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Insect Gathering Machine (open access)

Insect Gathering Machine

Patent for insect gathering machine. Illustration included.
Date: June 27, 1905
Creator: Fogle, James Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Brakes for Wagons and Cars. (open access)

Improvement in Brakes for Wagons and Cars.

Patent for "am improved brake for wagons, cars, and other vehicles which shall be simple in construction, convenient in use, and powerful in operation" (lines 19-22) including illustrations.
Date: June 24, 1879
Creator: Franklin, Mathew C. & Landrum, Nathaniel
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Lever-Powers. (open access)

Improvement in Lever-Powers.

Patent for a lever-power which applies "the power and resistance to the lever, so that they will change positions with relation to the fulcrum as the power end of the lever descends" (para. 2). The relation of the lever with the fulcrum is flexible, and allows for increased leverage.
Date: September 23, 1879
Creator: Franklin, Mathew Calhoun
System: The Portal to Texas History
Clothes-Pin (open access)

Clothes-Pin

Patent for a clothes pin. Illustrations included.
Date: July 13, 1909
Creator: Freeze, John A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling. (open access)

Car-Coupling.

Patent for a car coupling that "couples automatically and by which a brakeman on a single car can uncouple one or more cars and to provide pipe connections between the cars for this and other purposes" (lines 9-13). It has a pivoted drawhead with lever connections to a piston head and uses steam connections with the cylinder in the piston head to couple.
Date: April 25, 1893
Creator: Gebhardt, William Charles
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hose or Pipe Coupling. (open access)

Hose or Pipe Coupling.

Patent for a hose or pipe coupling that automatically couples cars, and uncouples one or more pipes are automatically uncoupled by steam, air, or fluid pressure. The "invention consists of a pair of twin couplers through each of which one or more tubes are conducted, the apertures of which in the face of one coupler register with those in the face of the opposite coupler, each coupler being provided with guides or other suitable means for bringing it into alignment with the other and with a bolt or latch which automatically engages the opposite coupler when they are brought together and is released by steam or other pressure through one of the connecting pipes, in order to uncouple; and it further consists in a valve connection with said coupler pipes whereby the connecting pipe or pipes are closed in the act of uncoupling" (lines 13-28).
Date: August 15, 1893
Creator: Gebhardt, William Charles
System: The Portal to Texas History
Painting-Machine. (open access)

Painting-Machine.

Patent for an automatic device that paints large surfaces that has a reservoir for the paint, a brush that sweeps similarly to an expert painter, a mechanism that dips the brush in the paint, and an air pump that is connected to the reservoir to bring the paint to the brush. Multiple brushes and reservoirs can be used with this machine. The pump may be operated by hand or by machine.
Date: September 12, 1893
Creator: Gebhardt, William Charles
System: The Portal to Texas History